Plant a Love Garden

Valentine’s Day is a great time to plant a Love Garden especially in the Southern Hemisphere’s Late Summer season. And this is also an ideal time to plan one in the Northern Hemisphere and perhaps start early cuttings. Also start sowing the first seed in the heated glasshouse or sunny windowsill.

Love Gardens are one of the most beautiful and endearing of all types of gardens. Love is one of the most essential emotions for personal expression and growth. Planting a Love Garden surrounds the Gardener with all things they love so that they can potentially bathe in the colour and fragrance which further empowers this Love emotion. Such gardens refresh the soul and revitalize the spirit. Many times the plants in Love Gardens illicit memories and sentiments that link us with the past, while celebrating the beauty, bounty and fragrant present moment and inspire us with hope for the future.

For some people these gardens will remind them of a beloved one who they can feel near to all year and for years to come just by being there in this lovely garden space. For others this will be a garden-of-the-moment celebrating all the joys of beauty and love that they adore which is meant to invigorate and refresh the emotions and the soul; and often the souls of others who visit there. For them a Love Garden empowers their Love and symbolizes their devotion to this most desirable and noble emotional quality.

Planning and planting a Love Garden are much like starting a new romance; both take time and effort to be successful. One must be caring and careful, determined and devoted, focused and passionate both in the immediate moment as well as over the long-term. A perfect Love Garden is a big commitment and the rewards are worth every moment of the effort put in to make it truly wonderful. A perfect Love Garden will bring beauty, bounty, celebration, excitement, joy, magic, passion, wonder and so much more to enrich your daily life and your memories in years to come.

Now is a great time to start taking the steps necessary to enjoy a loving life in your Love Garden. Here are a few love lessons to remember: Pamper the soil. Much of what makes a loving relationship truly blossom is unseen. Caring, dedication and devotion are essential to the ultimate success of any Love Garden. Some of the most beautiful, fragrant flowers and bountiful, productive fruits and vegetables actually originate from the dark and dirty beginnings of well-aged compost. One often has to get their hands dirty in order to achieve beautiful results.

Gardeners work with the dirt and raw earth until it becomes “black gold.” They accept what at first appears grubby and unattractive, knowing their efforts will be rewarded later. Provide a suitable environment for things to grow. A bright, comfortable, open and sunny situation is best. Make sure that all your Love Garden plants are well cared-for on a regular basis. This will keep them healthy and strong which is essential for their successful development. Love Gardens must receive love in order to later return it.

Avoid dank, dark, shady environments, with bad soil and cramped, poor growing conditions which only lead to trouble. If the potential garden situation looks dodgy and unlikely to succeed, trust your better judgement and move on to a better place. If in doubt, get some helpful advice from a trusted expert with experience, and heed their advice. While it’s great to hope a dream-comes-true, one must be realistic to the potential of any site and situation. Many story book garden book pictures are just that: fables!

A good potential Love Garden site is fairly obvious and needs little contrivance. It looks bright, sheltered and sunny, with at least adequate soil, good natural resources and some protection and often will have a ‘good feeling’ about the way it looks. Think positively and laterally before you begin your planting. Many Love Gardens are based on very tried and true, traditional cultural practices and these often succeed. But creativity is the ‘spice-of-life’ and when all the pieces come together as they could, some of the most beautiful, creative and Divine Love Gardens result from most unusual circumstances and combinations.

Even when the existing natural soil isn’t the best, a wide range of lovely exotics can be nurtured in attractive containers, landscape planters, and larger tubs or raised beds that replace poor quality soils by rising above them and planting right over the top of what was once old and useless ground to create something really special. Often times such raised beds, produced in an artificially protected environment, can be better cared-for and nurtured, plus more easily fed and watered when grown-on under rather unique conditions with happier, healthier and more productive results.

Raising their position and elevating the Love Garden beds gives many flowers a chance to thrive in difficult situations. They get better air and light that refreshes them. The improved drainage keeps them from getting bogged down. Watering routinely on sunny, warm mornings will promote growth, flowering and pollination. Light feeding and watering during the late afternoon and early evening will replenish and refresh a tired Love Garden to keep it fit and healthy.

A successful Love Garden, just like a good romance, relies on care combined with intuitive and tender pampering, generosity (in moderation) and a passion to keep trying even when things are difficult and tough. Even when it seems demanding and time is short, just a little bit of extra time spent caring for your Love Garden will bring in improved results over time. But learn to see things in the long-term and refrain from expecting great and immediate results. Everything truly worthwhile takes time! Love flowers and Love Gardens reward those who love them.

Nothing comes without effort. Welcome Birds, Butterflies and other helpful visitors to your garden. They add colour and interest. Provide food and shelter to encourage the friendly and helpful visitors to come back or stay. They will earn their keep picking off nasty insects, pests and predators before you even notice them doing any damage to your Love Garden. Most Love Garden flowers are best left on the plant where you find them. Allow them to bloom freely and naturally as God intended. Occasionally, it is fine to pick selected blooms or fragrant flowers to enjoy at close range.

But taking too much can rob the garden of its beauty and make it appear dull and uninteresting. Leaving the flowers on the plants allows others to also enjoy what you have created which often generates appreciation and attracts lasting friendships. Love Gardens are meant to be shared. Sometimes, when a special blossom is unusually beautiful and sweet, we cannot resist caressing its petals and picking it for ourselves. Unfortunately, these blooms often then will collapse a lot faster than if they were left where they truly belong.

When picking Love Flowers, select fresh, young blooms that will last. Stand them in clean, deep water with a pinch of plant food or sugar in a bright position, change their water regularly; recut their stems and they will sometimes out¬last the rest of the blooms remaining in the more exposed positions in the Love Gardens. Tender care makes all the difference. Mature Love Garden blooms often last better when left in the garden. But mature blossoms often have a fuller fragrance and fully developed form.

They also make lovely bouquets that look great for the medium or short-term but usually fade a little faster than perky young blossoms. Picking older blossoms often have a shorter life-expectancy, but a well-mature herb and colourful blooms often prove quite rewarded when well cared-for. Sometimes older Love Flowers work in dried arrangements kept out of the sun or as potpourri place where they can be appreciated on the shelf in a box. Most of all, no matter what shape or sort of Love Garden you decide to grow, be sure to fully appreciate and love your Love Garden. Love Gardens are true Blessings from God and Nature.

They are sacred treasures that so few people ever really get to appreciate. With consistent energy, passion, patience and time your Love Garden will reward you and succeed. When the Passionate Garden looks back reflectively at what they have been able to achieve and experience in a lifetime, it is often the Love Gardens that are most fondly remembered. The memories and rewards of Love Gardens are legendary: discovering your first Love Flower bloom; seeing and watching your Love Garden develop and grow healthier, stronger and ever more wonderful each day.

And witnessing how it looks once in full bloom and in maturity are well worth all the effort. Fond and Loving Memories are a powerful fuel that warms the heart and soul. Memories often spark the growing fires of young passion and brighten the mind with contented thoughts as the season matures and wanes. Thus maturing Love Gardens created by maturing Gardeners often become Love Gardens of Memories.

These often contain more than enduring mature Love Flower plantings, but also include many types of memorabilia like personal artefacts, sculpture, seating and benches, special gifts and treasure mementos that are closely associated with endeared Loved-Ones, Pets and Special Moments in Time. Anything with sentimental significance can find a place within a carefully created Love Garden of memories. A Love Garden of Memories is often the supreme expression of emotive and passionate garden art.

Love is amongst the most essential and important parts of life. And Love Gardens materially express all the beauty, caring, devotion, magic, partnership, passion, union and wonder that a loving person can experience in a lifetime. Every devoted and passionate Gardener should strive to achieve at least one Love Garden in their lifetime; and many Gardeners choose to grow nothing else! This is sacred territory, for Love Gardens are a most Blessed Union between Gardener(s), Garden Lovers, God and Nature.

Happy Valentine's Day to all you Lovers and Love Gardeners! May this day be the representational start of a lifetime of Love for each and every one of you!

Dale Harvey and John Newton met in Melbourne Australia in 1981. Since then they both have supported each others careers while also building and maintaining their own. Read about how they were able to turn their joint careers into one and creating a dream of a better world starting in their own local community.

This is a collection of Appreciation Certificates, Local and Overseas Awards with Acknowledgments presented to Dale Harvey and John Newton over the many years of their joint careers plus the Launch and Registration